FAQ Reflection with Tom Martin

We are very pleased to Announce that Tom has agreed to become a regular contributor to the site, and in the first of his articles, he takes a more detailed look at the recently announced update to the Warhammer Underworlds: Shadespire FAQ!

It’s finally here! The newest Warhammer Underworlds FAQ is up so hopefully, we can all stop yelling at our screens when we see the same questions asked again and again on our favourite social media sites. Hopefully. Maybe. Probably not though right?

Let’s take a look at what arguments GW have resolved for us!

Q: Should the discard pile be face up, or can it be face down?A: It should be face up. The cards in the discard pile are ‘open information’ – if your opponent asks, you must show them the cards in your discard pile.

I actually didn’t realise there was any confusion surrounding this but having played games where both yours and your opponent’s discard piles are off limits it’s nice they cleared it up I suppose!

Q: When a fighter moves (or charges, or is put on Guard), is taken out of action, and returned to the battlefield in the same Action phase, are they still considered to have moved (or charged, or been put on Guard)? A: Yes.

Yasssss!! Let’s be honest – we all knew how this was ruled really but I’ll certainly be pleased to see this question no longer being asked every ten minutes. The markers we apply to our models for moving, charging, being on guard etc. are best seen as a reminder rather than tokens the model gains for completing a certain action. ( Finally, no more clock resets – ED!)

Q: Which fighters count towards Garrek’s Reavers’ Inspired condition?A: ‘Fighter’ refers to both friendly and enemy fighters, unless one or the other is specified. Garrek’s Reavers become Inspired when any three fighters are out of action. Note that fighters that have been returned to the battlefield are no longer out of action, and are not counted.

This is exactly why the Sepulchral Guard is a huuuge pain in the butt for the Reavers. Not only does reviving your skellies maintain your board advantage it also prevents your opponent from getting all shiny and inspired.

Q: When Blood Rain has been used, do Attack actions with the HAMMER characteristic count as having the SWORD characteristic instead of the HAMMER characteristic, or in addition to it? A: They replace the existing dice characteristic – all Attack actions in the next activation use the SWORD characteristic (and only that characteristic), even if they would normally use the HAMMER characteristic instead.

Another very frequently asked question this one. The card art made the other interpretation of this card (that the next attack would consider HAMMER and SWORD results as a success) plausible. I would have liked to see an image of Obryn tripping over his hammer to make this one clearer…

Q: When characteristics are modified, does multiplication happen before or after addition? For example, if a fighter with a Move characteristic of 3 has Great Speed, giving them +1 Move, and you play Sprint, can they move 7 or 8 hexes? A: Multiplication (and division) happen before addition (and subtraction). The fighter in your example moves up to 7 hexes.

Q: Time Trap instructs you to skip your next activation. Does this mean you have to take a Pass on your next activation, or do you get an extra activation and therefore change the turn order? A: When you use Time Trap you take an extra action (not an activation). This action happens in the power step, and you do not flip an activation token when you take the action. You cannot use this action to do something you could not normally do (e.g. make an Attack action with a fighter that has already made a Charge action in this phase). Once you have taken the action, the power step continues. You must take the ‘Pass’ player activation as your next activation, which will be followed by the power step as normal. Time Trap does not change the turn order.

I don’t know about you guys but I’m actually disappointed by this one. To me the take an action wording seemed specifically phrased that way to imply that a model that can’t activate could still actually take an action as a result of Time Trap. However, this is still probably the most powerful card in our arsenal at the moment. The ability to act before your opponent gets a chance to respond can be absolutely devastating if used at the right time.

I thought these were the most important FAQs to mention but if you’ve got something to add or if you were surprised by any of the rulings let us know in the comments!